Join the discussion

Alabama’s cuts to state higher education funding over the last decade are among the deepest in the country, according to a new report from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP), a nonpartisan research organization based in Washington, D.C. The funding decline persisted even as the state’s economy began to rebound from the Great Recession.

Since 2008, Alabama has slashed state higher education funding by 34.6 percent or $4,290 per student, CBPP found. The state’s cuts are the nation’s third worst by dollar amount and fifth worst by percentage. Nationally, the average cuts since 2008 are 16 percent or $1,502 per student.

Alabama’s inadequate public investment in higher education over the last decade has contributed to rising tuition prices, often leaving students with little choice but to take on more debt or give up on their dreams of going to college. Between 2008 and 2018, the average tuition at public four-year institutions in Alabama jumped by $4,329, or 69.8 percent – far outpacing the national average growth of 36 percent. These soaring costs have erected barriers to opportunity for young people across Alabama, particularly for black, Hispanic and low-income students.

“Pushing the cost of college onto students and their families will not make our state stronger,” Alabama Arise policy analyst Carol Gundlach said. “We must invest adequately in higher education to be able to build an Alabama where everyone has the opportunity to succeed.”

Americans’ slow income growth has worsened the college unaffordability problem. While the average tuition bill increased by 36 percent between 2008 and 2018, median incomes grew by just over 2 percent. Nationally, the average tuition at a four-year public college accounted for 16.5 percent of median household income in 2017, up from 14 percent in 2008.

In Alabama, a college education is even less affordable, especially for black and Hispanic families. In 2017, the average tuition and fees at a public four-year university accounted for:• 21 percent of median household income for all Alabama families.• 32.2 percent of median household income for black families in Alabama.• 26.8 percent of median household income for Hispanic families in Alabama.

“The rising cost of college risks blocking one of America’s most important paths to economic mobility,” said CBPP senior policy analyst Michael Mitchell, the report’s lead author. “And while these costs hinder progress for everyone, black, Hispanic and low-income students continue to face the most significant barriers to opportunity.”

Financial aid has failed to bridge the gap created by rising tuition and relatively stagnant incomes. As a result, the share of students graduating with debt has increased. Between 2008 and 2015, the share of students graduating with debt from a public four-year institution rose from 55 percent to 59 percent nationally. The average amount of debt also increased during this period. On average, bachelor’s degree recipients at four-year public schools saw their debt grow by 26 percent (from $21,226 to $27,000). By contrast, the average amount of debt rose by only about 1 percent in the six years prior to the recession.

A large and growing share of future jobs will require college-educated workers. Greater public investment in higher education, particularly in need-based aid, would help Alabama develop the skilled and diverse workforce it needs to match the jobs of the future.

“All Alabamians, regardless of their income or where they grow up, deserve an opportunity to reach their full potential,” Gundlach said. “Our state should end tax breaks for large corporations and invest in making college more affordable for the students who need assistance the most.”

The uninsured rate for Alabama adults with low incomes is 36 percent in rural communities and small towns, and 29 percent in metro areas. Both rates are much higher than the national averages of 26 percent for rural areas and 18 percent for metro areas. Even in states that have not expanded Medicaid to cover adults with low wages, those rates have declined on average over the last decade.

But that progress has not reached many parts of Alabama, where the uninsured rate for low-income adults in rural areas and small towns was virtually unchanged between 2008-09 and 2015-16, the report found. And the Medicaid “work requirement” plan that Alabama has submitted for federal approval would drive the uninsured rate even higher by stripping Medicaid coverage from thousands of parents in poverty. Virtually all of those parents would be left with no realistic alternative for affordable coverage.

“Not only has Alabama failed to move forward on health coverage, but now our state is seeking to move backward by leaving even more people uninsured,” Alabama Arise policy director Jim Carnes said. “Alabama should drop its cruel efforts to punish people living in poverty and focus instead on expanding Medicaid so all Alabamians can get the care they need to become and stay healthy. Medicaid expansion would save hundreds of lives, create thousands of jobs and keep rural hospitals and clinics open to serve residents across our state.”

States that expanded Medicaid saw more than three times as large a decline in the uninsured rates for low-income adults living in rural areas and small towns than non-expansion states experienced between 2008-09 and 2015-16, the report found. Nationally, the uninsured rate for low-income adults fell by more than half – from 35 percent to 16 percent – in rural areas and small towns in states that expanded Medicaid. For states that have not expanded, the decline was much smaller: from 38 percent to 32 percent.

“Medicaid expansion would reduce the uninsured rate for residents across the entire state; however, the most dramatic improvement likely would be felt in small towns and rural areas of Alabama,” Georgetown CCF executive director Joan Alker said. “Improved coverage rates typically translate to a more stable health care system and help rural areas and small towns maintain availability of health care providers in areas where shortages are all too common. Access to rural health providers is especially important to women of child-bearing age and those with chronic conditions like asthma.”

In Alabama and elsewhere, jobs tend to be scarcer in rural areas and small towns, meaning fewer people have health insurance through their employers. And many of the jobs available in these communities – like farming and small businesses – are less likely to come with health benefits. Ten of the 11 Alabama counties with the highest unemployment rates in July 2018 were rural counties.

New U.S. Census data show that the share of uninsured Alabamians increased between 2016 and 2017 and remained higher than the national average. Alabama Arise policy director Jim Carnes issued the following statement in response on Thursday, Sept. 13, 2018:

“The White House’s efforts to undermine the Affordable Care Act and Alabama’s refusal to expand Medicaid are making life worse for hundreds of thousands of people across our state. These bad policy choices are serving as barriers separating people from affordable health coverage.

“Alabama’s steady gains in health insurance coverage since 2013 took a turn for the worse last year, this week’s new Census data show.The share of Alabamians without health insurance coverage rose to 9.4 percent in 2017, up from 9.1 percent the previous year and above the national average of 8.8 percent. These are trends in the wrong direction, and they’re the result of intentional policy choices.

“The Trump administration eroded ACA coverage by slashing funding for federal outreach and advertising to promote open enrollment for Marketplace coverage. In Congress, repeated attempts to repeal the ACA created public confusion over the status of the law. And in Alabama, the state’s ongoing refusal to expand Medicaid has left about 300,000 people trapped in a coverage gap, making too much to qualify for Medicaid but too little to receive subsidies for Marketplace plans.

“It’s time to stop undermining health coverage and start investing in it. The White House should stop attacking the ACA. Congress should shore up funding for Marketplace outreach and enrollment assistance. And Gov. Kay Ivey should expand Medicaid to save our rural hospitals, create thousands of jobs and make Alabama healthier.”

Alabama Medicaid is trying to take health coverage away from our state’s poorest parents struggling to make ends meet. Gov. Kay Ivey has to get federal permission to make this harmful change. Here’s why that shouldn’t happen:

The work requirement creates a no-win, catch-22 situation.

It targets 75,000 of the poorest Alabamians.

It’s a trap: They lose coverage if they don’t work AND if they do.

Without Medicaid expansion, it’s a work

The work requirement hurts families and children.

It targets people who are already working at home, taking care of children.

It ignores the shortage of affordable child care and public transportation.

Keeping track of who’s working, who’s looking for work, who’s not working and who’s exempt is hard and expensive. Those extra administrative costs will threaten other services like mental health and child protection.

If the state expands child care to help the new working parents, as it should, that’s another big cost to the state.

The plan does not show total state costs – which taxpayers deserve to know.

The work requirement goes against the mission of Medicaid.

Congress set up Medicaid in 1965 to provide health coverage for people with low incomes and medical need.

Cutting off health coverage in the name of promoting work violates Medicaid’s core purpose.

It’s vital to keep up the drumbeat of opposition. Alabama Medicaid got more than 800 public comments in Round 1 and more than 650 in a surprise Round 2. Next comes Round 3, the crucial federal comment period. Stay tuned for details!

“Alabama Medicaid’s work requirement proposal would create a no-win situation for thousands of parents living in deep poverty. They’ll lose health coverage if they don’t get a job – and if they do.

“This proposal is a catch-22. Because Alabama hasn’t expanded Medicaid, a mother with two kids is ineligible if she works just 10 hours a week at minimum wage. If she met the proposed work requirement, she would earn too much for Medicaid, but not nearly enough to afford private coverage. When parents lose their insurance, children are less likely to have regular doctor visits and more likely to become uninsured themselves.

“On the same day Alabama submitted its proposal, a federal court struck down Kentucky’s plan to impose a work requirement and other restrictions on people covered by Medicaid expansion. That ruling, against a state with a much more generous Medicaid program than Alabama’s, highlights our state’s risk of a similar costly lawsuit.

“Any way you look at it, this proposal is nothing more than an expensive plan for denying health coverage to parents in deep poverty. Instead of punishing struggling families, our leaders need a vision for a healthier Alabama. We urge Gov. Ivey to save tax dollars, cut red tape and save lives by withdrawing this misguided plan.”

Arise Citizens’ Policy Project executive director Kimble Forrister issued the following statement Thursday, June 28, 2018, in response to the U.S. Senate’s 86-11 vote for a Farm Bill that protects and strengthens the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP):

“SNAP helps nearly 900,000 Alabamians make ends meet, and we’re pleased that the Senate voted overwhelmingly today for a Farm Bill that protects this essential tool to reduce hunger and poverty. We especially want to thank Senators Doug Jones and Richard Shelby for supporting the bill and opposing an amendment that would have made harmful changes to SNAP.

“Strengthening SNAP – not cutting it as the House Farm Bill proposes – is the right path forward. We urge Senators Jones and Shelby to work to ensure that the final conference agreement retains the Senate’s bipartisan protections of SNAP. And we urge the members of Alabama’s House delegation to join them in safeguarding food assistance for struggling families who need help.”